Archaeologists from the University of Reading had already found extensive remains from an Anglo-Saxon monastery a few inches beneath the soil of the village. But this large complex is the first “Great Hall” to be discovered in more than 30 years.

“The Hall provides an exceedingly rare glimpse of royal accommodation of a type otherwise evoked in the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf,” explained Dr Gabor Thomas, from the University of Reading’s Department of Archaeology, who said the “remarkably preserved” foundations had been an “entirely unanticipated” emergence.

"Nearly all the archaeological information shedding light on Kent around the time of the conversion to Christianity is based upon cemetery finds. The site at Lyminge is the first to provide a detailed picture of life at an aristocratic estate centre in Anglo-Saxon Kent during the height of the kingdom's political power at the end of the 6th century.”

The hall could fit up to 60 people for royal assemblies. "It was a prestigious building used at specific times for a specific purpose, such as periodic gatherings involving feasting and gift-giving, to reinforce the social bonds between the king and his loyal retainers,” adds Thomas.

Luxury glass vessels and a rare bridle fitting – previously only found in graves of the Anglo-Saxon warrior elite – are among the finds. Further investigations, backed by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Kent Archaeological Society and the Canterbury Archaeological Trust, are planned during the summers of 2013 and 2014.